Drivers

A driver is a small piece of software that acts as an interface between hardware devices or other programs and the higher-level computer programs that interact with it. Your Windows operating system requires that a driver is installed for each and every piece of hardware or device on your system (for example, your video card or your web cam). This driver enables the device to communicate with the software that is using it and with the operating system in general. Drivers are usually loaded at Windows start-up and are required for the seamless operation of all the connected hardware devices.

The 'Drivers' section of 'Autorun Manager' allows you to view all drivers currently installed and running in your system and to modify their behavior. It also allows you to quickly find out if any of your drivers are infected with malware; to view digital signatures associated with a particular driver; to add another driver if required and to edit the behavior/configuration of a particular driver.

To view the 'Drivers' interface, click 'Autorun Manager' > 'Drivers' tab. The list of currently loaded drivers are displayed with the following details:

The name of the driver. The drivers that are currently running are indicated with a green indicator and those currently stopped are indicated by red indicator;

The malware affected status of the service;

Whether the driver contains the digital signature of the publisher - digitally signed programs/services/drivers ensure that you received the program from the authentic publisher and the program was not altered during transit from the publisher to you;

Click the '+Add' button near the bottom-right corner the 'Drivers' interface.

Click 'Browse' in the pop-up that appears and navigate to the desired .sys file that you want to add as driver and to be loaded during Windows start-up.

Enter a name for the driver. This name will appear in the drivers list after addition.

Select how the driver has to be started from the start Type drop-down.

Demand - The device driver will be started by the service control manager when a program/process calls the Start function.

Automatic - The device driver will be started by the service control manager automatically during system start-up.

Disable - The device driver will be disabled and will not be started can no longer be started.

System - The device driver will be started by the I/O system after boot devices such as the boot file system and disk driver have been initialized. Select this option for drivers that are not critical to the system boot. This value is valid only if the service type is Driver or File System.

Boot - The device driver will be started by the operating system loader. This value is valid only if the service type is Driver or File System.

Select the Driver type from the 'Type' drop-down.

Driver - Select this when you are adding a Windows NT device driver.

File System - Select this when you are adding a Windows NT file system driver.

MiniFilter - Select this when you are adding a Windows file system mini-filter driver.

Select the severity for the error generated if this service fails to start during system startup and to determine the action to be taken by the associated start-up program if such failure occurs, from the 'Error' drop-down.

Ignore - The associated start-up (boot) program logs the error but continues the start-up operation.

Normal - The associated start-up program logs the error and displays a message but continues the start-up operation.

Severe - The associated start-up program logs the error. If the last-known-good configuration is being started, the start-up operation continues. Otherwise, the system is restarted with the last-known-good configuration.

Critical - The associated start-up program logs the error, if possible. If the last-known-good configuration is being started, the start-up operation fails. Otherwise, the system is restarted with the last-known-good configuration.

Set the order at which the Driver has to be loaded in the Load Ordering Group in which the Driver is a member by selecting the registry key 'NT ServiceGroupOrder key' for the Driver from 'Order in Group' drop-down.

Background Note:

If multiple drivers are configured to access the same device then the driver that is loaded first will claim 'ownership' of the device. This driver is then allowed to dictate the terms of shared ownership with other drivers or can retain exclusive control for itself. Therefore, the order in which drivers are loaded will play an important role in the control of the device. If ownership is exclusively claimed by a Driver (because it was loaded first), any further attempts by other drivers to access the device will be denied. The order in which the driver loads with respect to the other drivers is specified by the registry key 'ServiceGroupOrder key.', set for that driver. If you do not specify the 'Order in Group', the driver will be loaded after all the other drivers are loaded.

Set the Load Order Group to which the driver has to be a member, by selecting a group from 'Load Group' drop-down.

Background Note:

The Load Group specifies the Load Ordering Group in which the Driver is a member. The list of Load Ordering Groups in order is stored in the Windows registry at: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\ServiceGroupOrder.

The startup program uses this list to Load Ordering Groups of Drivers in a specified order with respect to the other groups in the list. You can place a Driver in a group so that another Driver can depend on the group.

The order in which a Driver starts is determined by the following criteria:

The order of groups in the registry's Load Ordering Group list. Drivers of the groups in the list are started first, followed by Drivers in groups not in the list and then Drivers that do not belong to a group.

The Driver's dependencies listed in the 'Depend on Group' parameter and the dependencies of other Drivers dependent on the Driver.

Set the other Driver or the 'Load Ordering Group' that must be loaded before the Driver from the 'Depend on Group' drop-down.

Background Note:

Dependency on a Driver/Service means that this Driver can run only if the Driver/Service it depends on is running. Dependency on a group means that this Driver can run if at least one member of the group is running after an attempt to start all members of the group.

If no 'Depends On Group' is specified, the Driver will not depend on any other Driver/Service/Group.

Click OK. The Driver will be added to the list and will be loaded as per the 'Start Type' specified while adding it.

Click on the Driver from the list. The Details panel will open. The current status is indicated beside 'Status'.

To start a stopped Driver, click the 'Start' button. The Start button appears only for the Drivers with 'Stopped' status.

To stop a running Driver, click the 'Stop' button. The Stop button appears only for the Drivers with 'Started' status.

Click 'Apply' for your changes to take effect.

To edit the Start type and other parameters of the Driver

Click on the Driver from the list. The Details panel will open. The parameters of the driver will be displayed.

The interface is similar to Adding a New Driver interface. Refer to the section To add a new Driver for the explanations of the parameters and how to modify them.

Click 'Apply' for your changes to take effect.

To unregister or remove a Driver

Click on the Driver from the list. The Details panel will open.

Clicking on 'Unregister' will remove the driver from the registry but will be kept in the list until the application is closed, enabling you to register the driver again by clicking the 'Register' button.

Clicking on 'Remove' will remove the Driver both from the Registry and the list of Drivers.

Click 'Apply' for your changes to take effect.

Tip: You can also revert the command by clicking on Undo link in the upper right corner of Autorun Manager. This command available only before the settings take effect.